We have been taught about bureaucratic, traditional and charismatic leadership but not ring master leadership that are amidst us. Ring master leadership is what prevails in a circus where one individual has been able to manage lions, tigers, monkeys etc and get them to carrying out his biddings. With no intellectual capacity, these animals have been trained to respond to the instructions of the ring master much to the amazement of the audience.
Without the ring master those animals would be out of control and the result would be chaos if not civil war. This is exactly what happens when a leader closes his eyes to the dynamics of groups. A foremost example of this scenario is the huge mandir that stands at Carlsen Field in Central Trinidad. Once vibrant under the leadership of Swami Satchitananda, the Divine Life Society (DLS) is now defunct. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the DLS had more than 70 Sandhya and Havan groups across the country. Today, despite numerous efforts to resuscitate this organization, it refuses to come alive.
Under the leadership of Haripersad Harikissoon the Hindu Seva Sangh (HSS)was a vibrant organization in the 1980s and 1990s training hundreds of youths in Youth Development Camps to become volunteers to serve the Hindu community. It played a majestic role in the popularizing of Indian Arrival Day until it was officially declared a public holiday in 1995.
Two tangible projects that the HSS played significant parts were the construction of the Sundar Popo Statue in Debe and the Seedas Sadhu Statue in Waterloo. As for the members that Harkissoon prevailed over, many have quit the arena, while a few have aligned with other institutions as sewaks.
The leadership that Hariji provided was challenged by other senior members leading to defections and the weakening of the organization and its slow demise. Thankfully, the only difference between Hariji and Swami Satchitananda is that the former did not leave behind a white elephant that can transform into an eyesore.
Several organizations have long disappeared and a few are in ICU brought about by the health challenges and old age of their ring masters.
The future of leadership in the Hindu community is grim given the flourishing of ring master style leadership. In contemporary organizations the ring master demands absolute loyalty and the slightest protest or indication of dissension is rapidly interpreted as disobedience which is followed with sanctions.
The harem that prevailed in medieval age and to date in some parts of the world can also be held up as a leadership style. Such a leader ensures that he is the only virile man in the harem and that all the males allowed on the compound are eunuchs (neutralized) to ensure they don’t compete with him for the women in the harem.
A few beautiful mandirs have been constructed over the recent years. Given the collapse that resulted following the death of leaders I am afraid to ask what would be the future when the ring masters close their eyes.
Swami Prakashananda of the Chinmaya Ashram is the model of leadership that Hindus must follow. The Chinmaya Ashram does not begin and end with Swamiji as he has a organizational hierarchy to account to.
Today the Chinmaya Ashram has more that a dozen schools with hundreds of students and scores of teachers. And the education program is only one aspect of the Ashram’s program.
Currently, Swamiji is engaged in a 108 nightly yagyas in mandirs across Guyana. This is no small undertaking and had been executed quite successfully in Trinidad a few years aback.
Swamiji is also engaged in yagyas in other parts of the Americas time and time again.
The online ICDN newspaper is a success story. Two former contributors- Ramdath Jagessar and Kamal Persad- have passed on without causing any setback to the paper. Initially managed by Dool Hanomansingh, today that duty is executed most efficiently by Vishnu Bisram of New York. Vassan Ramracha and veteran journalist Paras Ramoutar have been writing from its inception 8 years ago. No one has ever been debarred from publishing in ICDN; certainly an enviable record!
Ring master style leadership can be burdensome. To drive morons to perform can be exhausting with the ring master burdened to do all the thinking and planning leading to nara, big stones and premature deaths.
To many of our one-man activists are disappearing with all the great work they have accomplished without a whimper. One-man Rambo style leadership is worse than ring master leadership as exhaustion, frustration and irrelevance step in very early.
A leader must love animals but work with human beings to promote Sanatan Dharma and develop a strong and vibrant Hindu community. The need for a whip to drive result may not be needed but a more open mind that can entertain diverse views, suggestions and corrections.
Hindus have a dharmic duty to align with leaders who recognize the intellectual capacity of their followers and not leaders with a whip in their hands to treat them like senseless animals.